Roar Guru
The Melbourne Rebels travel to Sydney to face the NSW Waratahs in Round 11 of Super Rugby. Join us here on The Roar from 7.55pm (AEST) for live scores and updates.
The Rebels are looking for three wins in a row, and a chance for the experience to have beaten all Australian franchises.
But the Rebels’ inaugural Captain and board member, Stirling Mortlock, believes today will be the Waratahs’ day. Last week, most tipsters wrote off the Rebels chances versus the Brumbies, but were surprised by the Rebels quality performance, albeit with a depleted Brumbies team.
Today, the Waratahs will not be depleted. The exception is Wycliff Palu, who was moved to the bench. That means Lopeti Tomani will face a taller Mitch Chapman, whilst man mountain Will Skelton will biff it out against giant Cadeyrn Neville.
With this tall timber move, it looks like the Waratahs want to improve their lineout chances especially with the return of Tatafu Polota-Nau to the No. 2 Jersey. They then want to bring in Palu to finish off the match. Both teams are ranked close to bottom of the lineout ladder.
The Waratahs will probably feel a little aggrieved with how the scrums were judged in their Round 2 encounter. The Rebels scrum has climbed to third, achieved by their stellar scrum performance last week against the Brumbies. This was also helped by the Waratahs and the Force, whose scrum dropped the Stormers to fourth place.
The other big battle will be in the loose. Both teams have developed superb phase play capabilities, gaining both metres and gainline advantages.
Wallabies (and Waratahs coach) Michael Cheika hopes both sides will come away without injuries. This includes Wallaby team mates Michael Hooper and Sean McMahon. They are the top Australian tacklers this year and will most likely continue to put their bodies on line, and increase these statistics for their respective team.
As if the Rebels were not already stacked with enough Queenslanders, Dominic Shipperley has been brought in to start on the wing. He will face off with the hard running, tough tackling, rough rucking Rob Horne. Although ‘Big T’ Taqele Naiyaravoro does have visa problems, he will not be playing today.
The bookies have the Waratahs at a huge advantage. This is aided by the fact that the Rebels have not won in Sydney, ever. But the Rebels faced similar odds last week, and delivered a famous win. They may do the same today, if the Rugby Gods (and the referees) are on their side.